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I have updated it for the three items which will be delivered over next few days:-

NLRT003 Leyland Royal Tiger - W Alexander NSET004 5 Piece Bus Set - London Transport (this set includes NNR002 New Routemaster not yet released as an individual item)NVWB004 VW Beetle - Anthracite

Oxford Diecast will be at the London Toy Fair between 24-26 January at Olympia in West Kensington, London. I expect the next planned items to be announced over the preceding weekend on the Oxford Diecast Collectors Facebook Group when Oxford MD Lyndon Davies makes his appearance on the Group.

There is a substantial backlog of items still to be delivered from 2016 announcements, in spite of a much reduced new item announcement programme in October 2016. Many earlier items have been rerun over the past few months but equally many of the planned newly tooled items have not been seen even as raw mouldings yet.

In addition there is a Burlingham Seagull coach which will probably be NBSC001.

Oxford have had some tooling issues with various items which are now resolved. First shots have been shown on the Facebook group. There were a dozen models being tooled as a group, and issues with the shape of the MGB ended up delaying the whole tooling suite.

I note the new so called Mini (well the real ones are hardly minis). That I would buy. There is a district shortage of decent ordinary current cars (say 2005 on) in the UK scale - things like the Focus, Mondeo, Vectra, Astra, Polo etc the sort of thing ordinary people, buy. I have a couple of Toyotas from tomytec, a first generation Galaxy, a Mercedes A class, and a current Beetle but that is more or less it.

The 1/160 scale stuff from the likes of Herpa, Busch, Reizte and others includes more modern image items, and they are not too far out of UK scale if carefully placed. However, they are pricey by comparison and some are of questionable quality. I've bought a few selected items at this scale, and so far I am pleased with the models, but careful study of online photos was needed to weed out the rubbish.

I fail to see why Oxford show so little inclination to produce more modern cars in N. Perhaps if I live long enough............

Might difficulties acquiring licensing agreements be one reason for the dearth of modern models? Though Oxford do lots of modern in larger scales, so obviously not. Are they just not convinced there's a volume market in N? But the Stobart lorries keep coming - are Stobart subsidising those?

Reading the questions and comments over the past few hours reminds me of a similar discussion on RMWeb late last year.

I believe there are several strands which are preventing more modern cars coming to market, some of which also dissuade the introduction of ordinary cars from earlier eras.

First and foremost of these is licensing. Oxford have been to Court over a copyright issue, and won their case, sort of. But the absorption of management time and financial cost would not encourage a repeat of this. Even though they won the case, this was at the heart of the withdrawal of their range of Chipperfields vehicles in 1/43, 1/76 and the single horsebox in 1/148. They have concluded wide ranging licensing agreements with some manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, JCB, and Eddie Stobart. The impact of this is clearly visible in the 1/76 range where virtually every current model from Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover is available or planned, with historic models being added as time and cost allow for creation of the CADs. For the current models the makers' CADs are used as the starting point so allow much quicker tooling. Older BMWs, Volvos etc. are also being added to the range in 1/76 which is also a mark of the availability of CADs, although not always direct from the manufacturers. Licensing agreements with some companies are very slow to conclude. The JCB licence in 1/76 has taken the whole of this decade to conclude. The Ford licences have also proved particularly onerous, and the modern Transit van and Transit Connect took an age to conclude. The Ford licensing is on a model by model basis, and each scale is licensed separately. Although Ford has made CADs generally available for the 3D printing market, the licensing attached to these is onerous, and not for commercial volumes of the railway market.

Secondly comes the market volumes. There are established collector markets in 1/43, 1/50 and 1/76, but not in 1/148. As with model trains, road vehicle volumes in 1/148 are markedly lower than in the larger scales. There are also themed markets in the larger scales such as collectors of all things VW, Mini, 2CV, Morris Minor, police, fire, military, bus, haulage company, RAC, AA, Post Office, BR, Railtrack/Network Rail, etc. 1/148 scale benefits from these markets too, so a collector of Post Office vehicles, for example, may collect across several scales. Boring as another Ford Transit re-livery might be, it addresses a market where the sustainable volume is greater than the run of the mill N gauge model train buyers can muster. The Oxford market-model seems to be based on a minimum of 4 issues of 3000 each colour/livery, and these volumes seem not to be available for 1/148 N for most car types. Add to this the car model changes over the past 70 years since rail nationalisation, and every era has its preferences. 3 x Ford Anglia, 6 x Ford Escort, 4 x Ford Focus (soon) so 13 different shapes to fragment the market, albeit the life of a car can span several decades.

Finally there is commercial reality. Oxford operates in a range of scales and in 1/76 covers numerous segmented markets. Its investment priority is based on returns that can be achieved. We had a recent attempt to stimulate interest in cars launched by DJModels. Whatever the failing of the "marketing" of this project there was nowhere near the volume of interest needed to continue the project. Oxford have been open to commissions, but their required volumes of 12000 per mould minimum seem not to stack up even for commissioners with experience of the 1/148 N market, especially where the licensing time/cost are factored in. There does not seem to be anyone with deep enough pockets or time resources to break in.

Everything I have written here is just my take on things. The Oxford volume for commissions is based on evidence provided confidentially by potential commissioners.

Reflecting on this has also highlighted the double edged sword represented by the N Gauge Society Carflat editions. A full load of 4 cars per flat adds around £20 per wagon to the cost, so an additional £440 per 20 wagon train in Ford Cortina Mk3s, for example. It should mean that the Oxford Cortina is a rapid sell-out in whatever colours it comes in. If it is not, then I would not expect Oxford to repeat the experiment for later eras.

Thanks Mike for your extremely detailed and instructive view of the small model car market. I can see the logic and the constraints and now appreciate why things are as they are.

Your points seem reflected in the output of the foreign manufacturers I mentioned too, as much of their ranges at N scale is limited to a few manufacturers. For the European makers, this shows in the number of variations on a theme of Sprinter van, recent Mercedes cars, and VW's ancient and (a few) modern that dominate their ranges.

I shall dream on of seeing a Ford Focus, or anything modern from Vauxhall, Honda, and so many others, though I fear it will long be just that, a dream.

Lorries with multi-axle trailers are not a problem from most manufacturers, with modern Scania and Mercedes examples abounding. With large flat sided trailers festooned with advertising, the reasons are clear.

For all vehicles my view is that what makes a good model, besides accuracy in design and good execution in manufacture, is the presence of good, well fitted windows. The problem at present with the poorer models is often the window representations, and for laser printers producing clear windows will present difficulties, not just in production, but in cost.

We shall have to wait and see. In the meantime I shall have to continue with my thoughts for my Swiss-based layout with its roads populated mainly by German-designed cars and vans, some very large artics, and a lot of folks indulging in that common Alpine pastime (truly), the classic car rally.

One thing to remember is there is a MASSIVE following for Stobart, so naturally they know that they can sell a large amount of them no matter what scale they are in.

This is a regular comment, that usually ties in with a whinge or 2, on the oxford groups with people complaining that the first release is always in Eddie livery but if they know that the tooling is half paid from that model, then logic says that they will make it.

The car transporter that was released last year in 00, has sold out so they have bumped the second stobart one as there is still demand for it.

I'm not complaining though as it will add to my mini Stobart depot that is planned on the layout.